Yesportal and ADT: together forever.
More power to 'em.

I fucked up.

I love you Zen. Now it all connects together and I am 100% confident now in what I'm going to do. It's true what i'm going to say will make me or destory me in this industry. Thank you Zen for the info.

Ok,
I was flipping around that piece of shit Yes Portal site wondering where the 'shopping' section was and why it kept going full circle. No fucking wonder. The shopping link I'm sure will go to ADT.
They should have talked to Roget T Pipe before making this merger.

Well,
Rog was at one time a very popular reviewer. He was not only popular with talent, but with fans and the industry as a whole. His site was and still is, full of reviews, interviews and reports.
However, it seems to me - and I highly doubt I'm alone in this - that he lost a lot of his clout and marketability hooking up with ADT. I could be wrong and totally off my rocker...but I don't think so. His site was popular enough to go toe to toe with just about anybody out there especially in terms of reviews and interviews. With enough site tweaking he'd have no problem being the king of all reviewers. Instead, it seems that he gave it all away and for what reason I do not know.

Hmmmm, why should they have talked to me? By "they" I assume you mean Yes Portal.

I realize what the prevailing feeling here is about ADT, but I don't see how hooking up with them would be a bad thing for Yes Portal.

Maybe I am missing the point of the post.

Rog

What do you want to know...I don't have much of a story

I own my domain name and my site, always have. I have sole control over the content on the site and always will. (Until Larry Flynt writes me a biiiiiig ass check then I'm retiring to Spain with Aurora Snow.)

They host my site, the web designers re-built my site and have a working relationship. On that side of things, everything is great. The site is better, traffic is up and I have more time to work on the reviews.

On another note, I'm friends with them. Popular here or not, they are good people and I'm really happy with things.

Rog

Hey Owen,
I can't speak to my popularity or talent. (Or lack thereof.)

I don't know if I have lost any clout since the re-design. I get more traffic than ever. The site was a mess before, now it's pretty damn good and getting better.

I don't consdider myself the king of anything. Den is the top internet reviewer and always will be. I do my thing and if people come to the site, great.

I'm curious though...what did I give away? People seem to assume sort of control over my site that doesn't exist. It's mine. I do all of the writing (Except for some toy and web site reviews that I've been farming out.) I don't do the design because I don't have the ability to do so.

In short, maybe there are some misconceptions? Maybe it's just part of the fued.

For better or worse, that site is mine. Any decisions about content are mine and in the end, if it sucks it's my fault.

Rog

Why can't you speak to your popularity or talent? We all have egos to some degree.

You don't know if you lost any clout? Well, I think my point was that 'Roger T Pipe' had certain marketability that was lost. Now, you're just like everyone else...a reviewer with no noticeable personality - a contrast to what you once were. But hey, that's my opinion.

More traffic? Means nothing amigo. The real question: is it making you more money?

I never said you were the king...just had potential. Who the fuck is Den? Does anyone outside of the grey, dull ADT walls know?

What did you give away? Read above.

Misconceptions? Sure, I'd be the first to admit if I were wrong. I'll also tell you here and now that a bit of my opinion comes from my assumption that you're doing this for profit. If I'm right, I just don't see how working with them will make you more money. If you do it for free, well then none of this matters.

Feud? No Roger, not with you. Not at all. In fact, I'll say that at least your worth a squirt of piss for having the nuts to come to this bored and post under your regular handle. Most of them are stupid sheep and afraid to do as you do.

Again, I just find it odd that you more or less sold your brand name away.

Roger wrote:

".....they are good people...."
This is where I draw the line

Hey now.....

I occasionally write pieces for Yes Portal :-)

Rog

Sure we all have egos, but I honestly don't know where I rank, or did rank on the popularity scale of internet reviewers. I think my reviews stack up pretty nicely, but the old site was a mess. Many sites were better than mine at the time. Talent? I don't know. Better than some, not as good as others? That's really up to the readers to decide.

What seems to be missing in this discussion is a ground zero. How could I have lost anything when I didn't give up anything? I didn't sell my site. I don't work for anyone. (Though Mrs. Rog may take issue with that statement of independence.) My "brand name" has not changed.

Since you took the time to comment and say that I have lost personality, I wonder if you could explain how. What is different? If you read my review of a movie this month compared to one three years ago, what has changed? It's not like I went to work for someone and started writing to their specs. (AVN)

More traffic and yes, more money. This have never been all about money for me. If that were all that drove me, I would have quit long ago and probably done things the easy way. It's hard to piss off porn companies with bad reviews if all you want is free porn. It's hard to tell the truth about shitty porn if all you want is to sell movies through affiliate programs. (Which some sites do for sure.) But to answer your question, yes I am making more money now that I was before. It was a matter of revamping the site so that readers could get the information they need and spend their money accordingly.

Den isn't part of ADT, but runs www.cavr.com

The misconceptions I was discussing have to do with my relationship with ADT. You appear to be assuming things that don't exist. I don't work for them. They don't control content on my site. I don't see how having someone re-design my site into something better would hurt me. I also don't see how working with other sites hurts any more than contributing other web sites does.

As for the fued...not between you and I no. I meant the ADT and XXXPT fued. I know the deal and I stay out of it. I post here on topics of interest or when I can make a contribution. I also understand that some topics will always be slanted based on the prevailing feelings of this (or any site.) So yeah, no fued between you and I. I don't do the fighting on the net thing so much any more. It kind of bores me.

That said...."Again, I just find it odd that you more or less sold your brand name away."

You said more or less, so maybe you don't mean that I actually sold...because I didn't sell anything. (Again, Larry Flynt....if you wanna buy a porn review site....) My brand name is the same. The site has changed only in look and ease of use. Or is there more? I'd honestly like to hear what you think is there.

Rog

Quote:

---

Sure we all have egos, but I honestly don't know where I rank, or did rank on the popularity scale of internet reviewers.

---

Ah, pretty low, you can be sure of that...

I never said you 'sold' a damn thing. My point was that you possibly took a negative brand hit by incorporating your persona into the ADT black hole.

Again Rog, I'm not telling it to you like it is. I'm making broad based assumptions and semi-targeted points.

You lose your personality (voice) when you're amongst a sea of attention hungry nerds.

My mistake about Den, wasn't thinking.

You're making more money? This is good. But I must ask, would you have made the same or more if you had cleaned up your site and opened a custom video store (D9, Gamelink, etc.)?

Again, I never said you worked for them. In my opinion a known association is bad enough.

Right, right, right, you never sold the friggin' domain. Look, my whole point is and will most likely continue to be the fact that you could have done better in the long term investing in Roger T Pipe...not by giving the devil a handjob....

Of that I have no doubt. There are so many more out there with more readers, more traffic and all that.

Thanks for the input.

Points taken. I fail to see how I have "incorporated" myself into anything. Had I not made the announcement, no one would even know. It's not like I changed the site name or anything. I contributed to ADT long before we started working together. I contributed to RAME long before that. I don't think I got lumped into a RAME/Rog persona.

Would I have done as well with someone else? Or on my own? Who knows? I'm doing better than I was before the re-design. I am doing better than when I partnered with another site a few years ago. I realize that almost every discussion on this board is painted with an us vs them brush, but outside of this board, no one has ever made an issue about who re-designed my site.

As a few posters in this forum remind me, it doesn't matter what I do or say, they are going to shit in my direction. You don't seem to be that sort so I've been intrested in what you have to say.

I appreciate the input and if you have some ideas on how to improve the site, I'm all ears.

Until then I will just go wallow in how unpopular my site is.

Rog

Once again, I never said your site was unpopular. I think maybe you're painting with a broad brush..though we all tend to.
The questions I'm asking you are just that, questions. No hidden agenda, just food for thought. The bottom line at the end of the day is that you're making more money....this is what matters.

Rog,
Do you own all of your reviews? Once they're on your site and on ADT, do you forfeit(sp?) ownership of those reviews? What about interviews?

They all get a t-shirt it says " I got gang raped and I'm still their bitch, and all i got was this lousy t-shirt"

Hey Owen....not everyting in that post was directed at you

Thanks for knowing what matters, but in the end, it's what readers think of the site that matters to me. I hate to sound like some sort of hippie, but providing a service means more to me than making money. (Though doing both at once is the ultimate.)

So please don't take anything in that post as a swipe at you. It wasn't a swipe at anyone, just me getting a kick out of the things on the net that never change.

Enjoy your weekend.....

Rog

Yes, I own all of the reviews on my site (Rogreviews.com) I also own all of the interviews on that site. Since the site is 100% mine I wouldn't forfit anything added to that site. I'm not sure if any of my reviews are actually on ADT. They are on other sites and in all cases, arrangements have been made for the sites to have permission to use them.

I won't forfit ownership of anything I write. I will sell limited usage rights, lease rights, sometimes trade rights etc, but the stuff is mine.

Rog